Comical Ditty, A (Arizona Boys and Girls)

DESCRIPTION: "Come all you good people, I pray you draw near... A comical ditty you shortly shall hear." The song notes how the boys dress up to court the ladies, and the girls dress up to court the men, but neither can get married of their own power
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1913 (Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety)
KEYWORDS: courting poverty clothes family
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MW,SE,So,SW)
REFERENCES (10 citations):
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, p. 430, "Comical Ditty" (1 text)
Randolph 461, "The Boys Around Here" (1 text, 1 tune)
Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric 131, "Boys in This Country Trying to Advance" (1 text, 1 tune)
Moore/Moore-BalladsAndFolkSongsOfTheSouthwest 142, "Arizona Boys and Girls" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cox-FolkSongsSouth 57, "A Comical Ditty" (1 text)
Boette-SingaHipsyDoodle, pp. 118-119, "Boys About Here" (1 text, 1 tune)
Thorp/Logsdon-SongsOfTheCowboys, pp. 1-2, "The Arizona Boys and Girls" (1 text)
Logsdon-WhorehouseBellsWereRinging 20, pp. 133-135, "They're Down and They're Down" (1 text, 1 tune)
Stout-FolkloreFromIowa 73, pp. 96-96, "A Comical DItty" (1 text)
DT, COMDITTY
Roud #4868
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Putting on Airs" (theme)
cf. "A Restless Night" (lyrics)
cf. "The Hancock Boys" (theme)
NOTES [92 words]: Despite the title, this song does not strike me as in any way comic -- bitterly pathetic is more like it. Such slight humor as it has derives from its snarling sarcasm, but even this is too strong to be really effective.
I did not initially link the Randolph song with Cox's; they are shown with distinctly different metrical patterns, and Randolph's text isn't quite as sarcastic. But upon seeing more versions, it appears that they are just extremes of a constellation of forms.
A common tag line is "The boys around here, they think they are men." - RBW
Last updated in version 5.3
File: JHCox057

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